Multimedia message service method and system

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a method of sharing multimedia contents, by a server, including storing the multimedia contents, receiving an establishment request configured to establish one of a plurality of access modes for the multimedia contents from a first terminal, establishing an access mode according to the establishment request for the multimedia contents, receiving an access request for the multimedia contents stored in the server from at least one second terminal, determining whether the at least one second terminal is allowed to access the multimedia message based on the access mode, and transmitting the multimedia contents, wherein the access mode includes at least one of a private mode for access by only the first terminal, a restricted mode for access by the at least one second terminal, and a public mode for access by all terminals.

PRIORITY

This application is a Continuation Application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/302,136, filed on Jun. 11, 2014, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/910,700, filed onOct. 4, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,787,881, issued on Jul. 22, 2014,which is a National Phase Entry of PCT International Application No.PCT/KR2006/001173, which was filed on Mar. 30, 2006, and claims priorityto Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0028743, which was filed onApr. 6, 2005, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to multimedia message service in a mobilecommunication system, and more particularly to a multimedia messageservice method and system enabling a plurality of mobile terminals toshare multimedia messages.

2. Description of the Related Art

Currently, mobile communication systems provide a multimedia messageservice (MMS), which enables transmission and reception of multimediamessages including much richer content, such as a large amount of text,audio, images and video, as well as an initial service of transmittingand receiving a short text message of about 150 bytes.

The multimedia message is transmitted/received between mobile terminalsaccording to the request of a client, or may be stored in a multimediamessage box. The transmission/reception of the multimedia messagebetween the mobile terminals is achieved in such a manner that when atransmission-side terminal transmits the multimedia message togetherwith the address of a recipient-side terminal, an MMS relay/serverreceives the multimedia message and transmits the multimedia message tothe recipient-side terminal with reference to the address of therecipient-side terminal which is included in the received multimediamessage. The MMS relay/server is connected to a mobile communicationnetwork, and performs a series of operations concerning the MMS. Amultimedia message is stored in the multimedia message box in such amanner that when a specific mobile terminal transmits a multimediamessage to be stored in an MMS relay/server while requesting storage ofthe multimedia message, the MMS relay/server receives and stores themultimedia message in the multimedia message box storage area of aclient account for the specific mobile terminal.

The flow of messages according to a procedure of transmitting/receivinga multimedia message between mobile terminals during the above-mentionedMMS is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating the flow ofmessages based on the conventional multimedia message service. A firstmobile terminal 1 is a mobile terminal for a client requestingtransmission of a predetermined multimedia message, and a second mobileterminal 7 is a recipient-side terminal for receiving the predeterminedmultimedia message. A first MMS relay/server 3 is connected to the firstmobile terminal 1, and a second MMS relay/server 5 is a server connectedto the second mobile terminal 7.

In step 101, the first mobile terminal 1 transmits an MM1-submit.REQmessage including the predetermined multimedia message to the first MMSrelay/server 3, thereby requesting that the predetermined multimediamessage is transmitted to the second mobile terminal 7. When the firstMMS relay/server 3 receives the MM1_submit.REQ message, the first MMSrelay/server 3 transmits an MM1_submit.RES message to the first mobileterminal 1 in step 103, thereby notifying the first mobile terminal 1that the first MMS relay/server 3 has received the MM1_submit.REQmessage, and then performs step 105. In step 105, the first MMSrelay/server 3 requests transmission of the predetermined multimediamessage to the second MMS relay/server 5, by transmitting anMM4_forward.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 5. In step 107,the second MMS relay/server 5 transmits an MM4_forward.RES message tothe first MMS relay/server 3 in response to the MM4_forward.REQ message,thereby accepting that the predetermined multimedia message istransmitted to the second mobile terminal 7, and then performs step 109.In step 109, the second MMS relay/server 5 notifies the second mobileterminal 7 that the predetermined multimedia message has arrived andstored in a temporary storage area of the second MMS relay/server 5, bytransmitting an MM1_notification.REQ message to the second mobileterminal 7. In step 111, the second mobile terminal 7 transmits anMM1_notification.RES message to the second MMS relay/server 5 inresponse to the MM1_notification.REQ message, and then performs step113. In step 113, the second mobile terminal 7 transmits anMM1_retrieve.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 5, therebyrequesting the second MMS relay/server 5 to retrieve the predeterminedmultimedia message. In step 115, the second MMS relay/server 5 transmitsan MM1_retrieve.RES message including the predetermined multimediamessage to the second mobile terminal 7 in response to theMM1_retrieve.REQ message, and then step 117 is performed. In step 117,the second mobile terminal 7 acknowledges the reception of theMM1_retrieve.RES message by transmitting an MM1_acknowledgement.REQmessage to the second MMS relay/server 5.

The transmission and reception of a multimedia message between mobileterminals is achieved through the above-mentioned message transaction.

As described above, the conventional multimedia message service enablesmobile terminals to directly transmit/receive multimedia messagestherebetween, and enables the multimedia messages to be stored in amultimedia message box. However, according to the conventionalmultimedia message service, although multimedia messages can be directlytransmitted between mobile terminals, the mobile terminals cannot sharethe multimedia messages. In addition, the conventional multimediamessage service does not provide a service of allowing other users toshare multimedia messages stored in a multimedia message box. For thisreason, a transmission-side mobile terminal must transmit a multimediamessage to each recipient-side mobile terminal one by one in order toallow a plurality of users to share the multimedia message, which causesconsiderable inconvenience to users, so that it becomes impossible for aplurality of users to share a plurality of multimedia messages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve theabove-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object ofthe present invention is to provide a multimedia message service methodand system which enables mobile terminals to share a plurality ofmultimedia messages.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multimediamessage service method and system which enables a plurality of users toconveniently share multimedia messages.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a multimediamessage service method and system which enables mobile terminals toshare multimedia messages stored in a multimedia message box.

To accomplish this object, in accordance with one aspect of the presentinvention, there is provided a method of sharing multimedia contents, bya server, comprising storing the multimedia contents, receiving anestablishment request configured to establish one of a plurality ofaccess modes for the multimedia contents from a first terminal,establishing an access mode according to the establishment request forthe multimedia contents, receiving an access request for the multimediacontents stored in the server from at least one second terminal,determining whether the at least one second terminal is allowed toaccess the multimedia message based on the access mode, and transmittingthe multimedia contents, wherein the access mode includes at least oneof a private mode for access by only the first terminal, a restrictedmode for access by the at least one second terminal, and a public modefor access by all terminals.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a server for sharing multimedia contents, comprising atransceiver configured to receive an establishment request configured toestablish one of a plurality of access modes for the multimedia contentsfrom a first terminal, receive an access request for the multimediacontents stored in the server from at least one second terminal, andtransmit the multimedia contents, and a processor configured toestablish an access mode according to the establishment request for themultimedia contents and determine whether the at least one secondterminal is allowed to access the multimedia message based on the accessmode, wherein the access mode includes at least one of a private modefor access by only the first terminal, a restricted mode for access bythe at least one second terminal, and a public mode for access by allterminals.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for sharing multimedia contents, by a terminal,comprising generating an establishment request for establishing one of aplurality of access modes for the multimedia contents, transmitting theestablishment request to a server, so that the server can establish anaccess mode according to the establishment request for the multimediacontents, and receiving a response to the establishment request from theserver, the response including the access mode established by theserver, wherein the access mode includes of least one of a private modefor access by only the terminal, a restricted mode for access by atleast one receiving terminal, and a public mode for access by allterminals.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a terminal for receiving multimedia contents, comprising acontroller configured to generate an establishment request forestablishing one of a plurality of access modes for the multimediacontents, and a transceiver configured to transmit the establishmentrequest to a server so that the server can establish an access modeaccording to the establishment request for the multimedia contents, andreceive a response to the establishment request from the server, theresponse including the access mode established by the server, whereinthe access mode includes at least one of a private mode for access byonly the terminal, a restricted mode for access by at least onereceiving terminal, and a public mode for access by all terminals.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for sharing multimedia contents, by a terminal,comprising receiving, from a server, a notification that the terminal isallowed to access the multimedia contents, generating an access requestfor the multimedia contents based on a response to the notification andtransmitting the access request to the server, and receiving themultimedia contents from the server based on an access mode requested bya transmitting terminal and established or changed by the server,wherein the access mode includes at least one of a private mode foraccess by only the transmitting terminal, a restricted mode for accessby at least one receiving terminal, and a public mode for access by allterminals.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a terminal for sharing multimedia contents, comprising atransceiver configured to receive a notification from a server that theterminal is allowed to access the multimedia contents, and receive themultimedia contents from the server based on an access mode requested bya transmitting terminal and established or changed by the server, and acontroller configured to generate an access request for the multimediacontents based on a response to the notification, and control totransmit the access request to the server, wherein the access modeincludes at least one of a private mode for access by only thetransmitting terminal, a restricted mode for access by at least onereceiving terminal, and a public mode for access by all terminals.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating the flow of messages based on theconventional multimedia message service;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of an MMSsystem, to which the present invention is applied;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a mobileterminal, to which the present invention is applied;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a mobile terminalbased on a procedure of establishing access permission conditionsaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a mobile terminalbased on a procedure of requesting access permission conditioninformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of an MMS relay/serverbased on a procedure of establishing access permission conditionsaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of an MMS relay/serverbased on a procedure of providing access permission conditioninformation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating an access permission notificationprocedure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of an MMS relay/serverbased on an access permission notification procedure according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a view illustrating the flow of messages based on an accesspermission notification procedure according to a first embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 11 is a view illustrating the flow of messages based on an accesspermission notification procedure according to a second embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 12 is a view illustrating the flow of messages based on an accesspermission notification procedure according to a third embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 is a view illustrating a procedure of searching for a multimediamessage according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 14 and 15 are flowcharts illustrating the operation of an MMSrelay/server based on a multimedia message search procedure according toan embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the followingdescription of the embodiments of the present invention, a detaileddescription of known functions and configurations incorporated hereinwill be omitted when it may obscure the subject matter of the presentinvention.

The construction of a multimedia message service (MMS) system, to whichthe present invention is applied, will now be described with referenceto FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of anMMS system, to which the present invention is applied. The MMS systemincludes a plurality of mobile terminals 10 and 20, a mobilecommunication network 70, a plurality of MMS relay/servers 30 and 40,and a plurality of multimedia message boxes (MM boxes) 50 and 60.

The mobile terminals 10 and 20 communicate with each other wirelesslythrough the mobile communication network 70, transmit multimediamessages as requested by the users, and perform operations referring tomanagement of multimedia messages stored in the MM boxes 50 and 60according to the request of the users based on the present invention.According to an embodiment of the present invention, the mobileterminals 10 and 20 include a first mobile terminal (first terminal) 10and a second mobile terminal (second terminal) 20. Herein, the firstterminal 10 stores a predetermined multimedia message in an MM box,establishes access permission for the stored multimedia message, andtransmits an access permission notification to mobile terminals whichhave been granted access to the stored multimedia message. The secondterminal 20 is a terminal which has been granted access to the storedmultimedia message, receives the access permission notification,retrieves the stored multimedia message, and extracts and downloads thestored multimedia message.

The MMS relay/servers 30 and 40 are connected with the terminals 10 and20 through the mobile communication network 70, and also the MMSrelay/servers 30 and 40 are connected with each other through the mobilecommunication network 70. The MMS relay/servers 30 and 40 are systemelements which execute the multimedia message service according to therequests of the users, and also are central elements of an MMS network.That is, the MMS relay/servers 30 and 40 cooperate not only with otherMMS relay/servers but also other messaging systems such as email, andalso provide message storage services. The message storage services maybe provided by the MMS relay/servers themselves, or may be provided byMM boxes which is described later in this document. Each MMSrelay/server 30 or 40 may be separated into two components, that is, anMMS proxy-relay for the interaction between the terminals 10 and 20 andother messaging systems, and an MMS server for the storage services. TheMMS relay/servers 30 and 40 include a first MMS relay/server 30 and asecond MMS relay/server 40. The first MMS relay/server 30 is connectedwith the first terminal 10 through the mobile communication network 70,and the second MMS relay/server 40 is connected with the second terminal20 through the mobile communication network 70. In this document, when amobile terminal is connected with an MMS relay/server through the mobilecommunication network 70, this means that the mobile terminal is locatedwithin the service area of the MMS relay/server.

The MM boxes 50 and 60 represent storage devices associated with the MMSrelay/servers 30 and 40, respectively, and are used for persistent andnetwork-based storage of a message. The terminals 10 and 20 can interactwith the MMS relay/servers 30 and 40 to manage messages stored in the MMboxes 50 and 60. The MM boxes 50 and 60 include a first MM box 50 and asecond MM box 60, in which the first MM box 50 is connected with thefirst MMS relay/server 30 and the second MM box 60 is connected with thesecond MMS relay/server 40.

According to the multimedia message system as described above, a mobileterminal transmits a predetermined multimedia message to an MMSrelay/server so that the predetermined multimedia message is stored inan MM box. In addition, the mobile terminal establishes accesspermission conditions of the multimedia message stored in the MM box sothat other mobile terminals can access the multimedia message, andtransmits an access permission notification to other mobile terminalswhich have been granted access to the stored multimedia message. Also,mobile terminals can access multimedia messages (access-permittedmultimedia messages), to which access has been permitted, and can searchand access multimedia messages of other users which are stored in the MMboxes.

Accordingly, the MMS relay/server stores a predetermined multimediamessage in an MM box as requested by the user, and establishes orchanges an access permission condition of the stored multimedia messagedepending on a user's request for establishment of access permission.The MMS relay/server transmits an access permission notification to acorresponding terminal depending on an access permission notificationrequest or access permission condition change request. Also, whenreceiving a multimedia message retrieval request from a mobile terminal,the MMS relay/server compares the access right of the mobile terminalrequesting the retrieval with the access permission conditions ofpredetermined multimedia messages, retrieves multimedia messages whichcan be provided, and transmits the retrieved multimedia messages to themobile terminal requesting the retrieval.

Hereinafter, the operation of the MMS system according to the presentinvention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 15.First, the construction of a mobile terminal, to which the presentinvention is applied, will be described with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a mobile terminal,to which the present invention is applied.

The mobile terminal includes a controller 11, a camera module 13, adisplay unit 15, a key input unit 17, a baseband processor 19, an RF(Radio Frequency) module 21, and a memory unit 23.

The camera module 13 outputs image frames obtained by an image sensor.

The display unit 15 displays various image information and datainformation either received from a base station or stored in the memoryunit 23 on a screen according to the control of the controller 11.

The key input unit 17 includes numeric keys of 0 to 9, symbol keys of‘*’ and ‘#’, direction keys, and a plurality of function keys of ‘menu’,‘select’, ‘send’, ‘delete’, ‘power on/off’, ‘volume’, etc., whichcorrespond to multiple functions of the mobile terminal. The key inputunit 17 provides key input data corresponding to a key pressed by theuser to the controller 11.

The RF module 21 transmits/receives wireless signals to/from a basestation through an antenna. In detail, the RF module 21 modulates atransmission signal input through the baseband processor 19 from thecontroller 11 so as to transmit an RF signal through an antenna, anddemodulates an RF signal received through an antenna so as to providethe demodulated signal to the controller 11 through the basebandprocessor 19. The baseband processor 19 processes baseband signalstransferred between the RF module 21 and the controller 11.

The memory unit 23 stores a program for the processing and controloperations of the controller 11, reference data, various maintenancedata which can be updated, various multimedia data, etc., and providesthe stored program and data to a working memory of the controller 11.The multimedia data represent contents which are inserted into andtransmitted with a multimedia message upon an MMS. Such multimedia datainclude, for example, sound source data, moving picture data, imagedata, and text data.

The memory unit 23 stores program data required for the execution of theMMS, and stores program data referring to a multimedia message accessmanagement menu according to an embodiment of the present invention. Themultimedia message access management menu is used for establishingaccess permission so as to share multimedia messages stored in an MM boxwith other mobile terminals, and includes an access permissionestablishment and change menu, an access permission conditioninformation providing menu, an access permission notifying menu, and amultimedia message retrieval menu, in relation to the multimediamessages.

The access permission establishment and change menu is used forpermitting access to multimedia messages stored in an MM box and forchanging an access permission condition of the multimedia messages. Theaccess permission establishment or change is achieved by establishingaccess permission conditions for a multimedia message, or changing thepreviously-established access permission conditions. The accesspermission conditions include an access mode, access user information,an access deadline, and an access display list.

The access mode represents an access permission level associated with amultimedia message. According to an embodiment of the present invention,the access mode includes three modes, that is, a private mode, arestricted mode, and a public mode. The private mode means that only theowner of the multimedia message can access the multimedia message. Therestricted mode means that only a restricted list of users specified bythe owner are granted access to the predetermined multimedia message.The public mode means that all users are granted access to thepredetermined multimedia message. When an access permission condition isestablished, if no access mode is specified, any one of the three modesmay be the default value.

The access user information represents a list of users who can access apredetermined multimedia message, of which the access mode has beenestablished as the restricted mode.

The access deadline represents the expiration time of the access to acorresponding message when the access mode of the correspondingmultimedia message has been established as the restricted mode or publicmode.

The access display list includes information about access permissionconditions which can be provided to mobile terminals granted access to amultimedia message, and may include access mode information, access userinformation, and access deadline information. For instance, when theaccess display list includes access mode information, the user of amobile terminal accessing a predetermined multimedia message can see itsown access level. Also, when the access display list includes accessuser information, the user of a mobile terminal accessing apredetermined multimedia message can know the users of other mobileterminals who can access the multimedia message. However, accesspermission condition information, which is not included in the accessdisplay list, is not provided to a mobile terminal accessing apredetermined multimedia message. If the access display list is notspecified, a default list should be applied for a predeterminedmultimedia message. The default list is defined by the service provider.If no default list exists, no access permission condition may beprovided.

Upon establishment of the access permission conditions as describedabove, when the access mode to be established is the private mode, theaccess user information and access deadline does not need to bespecified. It is preferred that the access user information is specifiedwhen the access mode is established as the restricted mode. Also, it ispreferred that the access deadline is specified when the access mode isestablished as the restricted mode or public mode, and the accessdisplay list may be specified in any request independently.

The access permission condition information providing menu is used forrequesting information about access permission conditions, which areestablished for multimedia messages belonging to the user of a mobileterminal, to an MMS relay/server.

The access permission notifying menu is used for requesting to notify amobile terminal granted access to a multimedia message that the accesshas been granted. Using the access permission notifying menu, the usermay establish an access notification or shared-multimedia notificationin an access permission notification request message, and may establishan access notification list. The access notification list represents alist of access permission conditions provided to an access-permittedmobile terminal upon a multimedia message access permissionnotification.

The multimedia message retrieval menu is used for retrieving multimediamessages stored in an MM box.

The controller 11 controls the entire operation of the mobile terminal,such as voice communication, data communication, and additionalfunctions thereof. According to an embodiment of the present invention,when transmitting the multimedia message to an MMS relay/server, thecontroller 11 transmits a message including a multimedia message andappropriate information according to a menu item selected by the user.

A procedure of establishing/changing, by the mobile terminal, accesspermission conditions for a multimedia messages stored in an MM box willbe described according to an embodiment of the present invention withreference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation ofa mobile terminal based on a procedure of establishing access permissionconditions according to an embodiment of the present invention. Under amultimedia message access management mode, when receiving a request forstoring a predetermined multimedia message in an MM box in step 201, thecontroller 11 of the mobile terminal proceeds to step 207, but if it isnot receiving such a request, the controller 11 proceeds to step 203.Upon forwarding or storing the predetermined multimedia message in theMM box, temporary address information of the MMS relay/server may beincluded in or attached to the predetermined multimedia message. In step203, when receiving an access permission establishment change requestfor the predetermined multimedia message, the controller 11 proceeds tostep 205, but it is not receiving such a request, the controller 11performs a corresponding operation. In step 205, the controller 11creates a request message by inserting the MM box storage locationinformation of the predetermined multimedia message into the requestmessage, and proceeds to step 207. In step 207, the controller 11displays a multimedia message access permission establishment/changemenu, and proceeds to step 209. In step 209, the controller 11establishes access mode information, access user information, accessdeadline information, and an access display list in the request messagebased on the selection of the user, transmits the request message, andends the procedure.

In this case, the controller 11 must insert sender information, that is,the telephone number of the mobile terminal or information representingthe location of the sender, into the request message. This is becausesuch information represents that the predetermined multimedia messagebelongs to the user of the mobile terminal.

The operation of the MMS relay/server, which has received the requestmessage, is shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating theoperation of the MMS relay/server based on a procedure of establishingaccess permission conditions according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Herein, it is possible to establish access permission for amultimedia message, to which access permission has been not established,or to change access permission previously-established for a multimediamessage. Referring to FIG. 6, when receiving a request relating to apredetermined multimedia message in step 301, the MMS relay/serverproceeds to step 303. In step 303, the MMS relay/server determines ifthe received request is an access permission establishment or changerequest for the predetermined multimedia message. When it is determinedin step 303 that the received request is an access permissionestablishment or change request for the predetermined multimediamessage, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 305. In contrast, when itis determined in step 303 that the received request is not an accesspermission establishment or change request for the predeterminedmultimedia message, the MMS relay/server goes to number {circle around(1)} to perform step 319 of FIG. 7. In step 305, the MMS relay/serverdetermines if the predetermined multimedia message is a multimediamessage (an access-permitted multimedia message) to which access is ableto be permitted. When it is determined in step 305 that thepredetermined multimedia message is a multimedia message to which accessis able to be permitted, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 307. Incontrast, when it is determined in step 305 that the predeterminedmultimedia message is a multimedia message to which access is unable tobe permitted, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 317. In step 317,the MMS relay/server transmits an error message and goes to number{circle around (2)} to return to step 301.

In this case, in order to determine if the predetermined multimediamessage is a multimedia message to which access is able to be permitted,the MMS relay/server checks the following criteria. First, the MMSrelay/server checks if the predetermined multimedia message is a validmultimedia message which is either already stored in an MM box orrequested to be stored in an MM box. If the predetermined multimediamessage is a multimedia message temporarily stored in the MMSrelay/server, no access permission can be established. In relation tothe first criterion, the MMS relay/server may notify a correspondingmobile terminal that the predetermined multimedia message is analready-stored multimedia message, or may perform an overwritingoperation. Second, when the predetermined multimedia message is amultimedia message already stored in the MMS relay/server, the MMSrelay/server checks if the user requesting the access permissionestablishment or change is the owner of the predetermined multimediamessage. This check can be achieved using sender information of themobile terminal originating the request. Third, the MMS relay/serverchecks if the predetermined multimedia message corresponds to amultimedia message which must not be shared with a plurality of users.For example, there is a multimedia message protected with forward-locktype digital rights management (DRM).

Referring again to FIG. 6, in step 307, the MMS relay/server checksreceived access permission condition information and proceeds to step309. In step 309, the MMS relay/server checks if the received accesspermission condition information includes inconsistent access permissionconditions. Then, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 311 if there areinconsistent access permission conditions, but proceeds to step 313 ifthere is no inconsistent access permission condition. Herein, the“inconsistent access permission conditions”, for example, represent acase in which access user information is established while the accessmode is established as a restricted mode. In step 311, since there areinconsistent access permission conditions in the received accesspermission condition information, the MMS relay/server establishesaccess permission conditions for the predetermined multimedia message byapplying an access permission condition having the highest priority, andthen proceeds to step 315. Herein, the most constraining accesspermission condition means an access permission condition which allowsonly the minimum number of users to share a predetermined multimediamessage or access permission condition information established therefor.For example, the restricted mode has a more constraining accesspermission condition than the public mode. In step 313, since there isno inconsistent access permission condition in the received accesspermission condition information, the MMS relay/server establishesaccess permission conditions for the predetermined multimedia message,and proceeds to step 315. In other words, the MMS relay/serverestablishes access permission conditions for the predeterminedmultimedia message stored in the MM box based on access permissionconditions included in the access permission establishment or changerequest. In this case, the MMS relay/server establishes accesspermission conditions for the predetermined multimedia message, bygiving a priority to the most constraining access permission conditionfrom among access permission conditions included in the accesspermission establishment or change request. In step 315, the MMSrelay/server checks if an access permission notification request isincluded in the access permission establishment or change request. TheMMS relay/server goes to number {circle around (3)} to proceeds to step329 of FIG. 9 if an access permission notification request is includedin the access permission establishment or change request message, butthe MMS relay/server goes to number {circle around (2)} to return tostep 301 if an access permission notification request is not included inthe access permission establishment or change request message. This isbecause the access permission establishment or change request messagemay include an access permission notification request.

Hereinafter, a procedure of requesting, by the mobile terminal, anaccess permission condition established for a predetermined multimediamessage will be described with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is aflowchart illustrating the operation of the mobile terminal based on aprocedure of requesting access permission condition informationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. When an informationprovision in relation to access permission conditions established for apredetermined multimedia message stored in an MM box is requested by theuser in step 221, the controller 11 of the mobile terminal proceeds tostep 223. In step 223, the controller 11 establishes a locationinformation list or selection criteria for target multimedia messagesbased on the selection of the user, and proceeds to step 225. In step225, the controller 11 transmits an access condition informationprovision request message to the MMS relay/server, and ends theprocedure. The “selection criteria for target multimedia messages” mayinclude a specified access mode, a specified access deadline, and/orspecified user information. For example, when the selection criteria areestablished as the restricted mode, only multimedia messages, the accessmode of which is established as the restricted mode, become retrievaltargets.

The operation of the MMS relay/server, which has received the accesscondition information provision request message, is shown in FIG. 7.FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the MMS relay/serverbased on a procedure of providing access permission conditioninformation according to an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, when the MMS relay/server receives a requestrelating to a multimedia message in step 301 of FIG. 6, the MMSrelay/server checks the type of the received request relating to themultimedia message, and proceeds to step 319 of FIG. 7. In step 319, theMMS relay/server determines if the received request corresponds to anaccess permission condition information provision request. If thereceived request corresponds to an access permission conditioninformation provision request, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step321, but the received request does not correspond to an accesspermission condition information provision request, the MMS relay/servergoes to number {circle around (4)} to proceed to step 325 of FIG. 9. Instep 321, the MMS relay/server checks location information or selectioncriteria for the target multimedia message, and proceeds to step 323. Instep 323, the MMS relay/server retrieves a predetermined multimediamessage to be provided and access permission conditions established forthe predetermined multimedia message, transmits the retrieved messageand conditions thereof to the mobile terminal, and goes to number{circle around (2)} to return to step 301 of FIG. 6.

Hereinafter, the transaction according to the present invention, whichis established between the mobile terminal and the MMS relay/server inorder to perform the operation in cooperation with the request for anaccess permission establishment/change or access permission conditioninformation provision for a multimedia message will now be described.

The first method employs new dedicated transaction, instead of theconventional MMS transaction. That is, MM1_mmbox_set_access messages areadded for a transaction to establish or change access permission for amultimedia message, and MM1_mmbox_get_access messages are added for atransaction to be provided with access permission conditions for one ormore multimedia messages.

That is, a mobile terminal requesting an access permission establishmentor change uses the MM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message as an accesspermission establishment/change request message. Therefore, the headerof the MM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message includes access permissioncondition information, which contains a sender address, locationinformation of a predetermined multimedia message in an MM box, accessmode information, access user information, access deadline information,an access display list, etc. The MMS relay/server having received theMM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message performs the procedure shown in FIG. 6,thereby transmitting an MM1_mmbox_set_access.RES message to the mobileterminal so as to notify the mobile terminal that the access permissionestablishment or change request is successfully completed, ortransmitting an error message if an error occurs.

When requesting an access permission condition provision, the mobileterminal uses an MM1_mmbox_get_access.REQ message as an accesspermission condition provision request message. Therefore, the header ofthe MM1_mmbox_get_access.REQ message must include a location informationlist of target multimedia messages. The MMS relay/server having receivedthe MM1_mmbox_get_access.REQ message performs the procedure shown inFIG. 7. Herein, the MMS relay/server inserts the location information ofmultimedia messages and the access permission condition informationthereof, having been obtained as a result of retrieval, into the headeror body of the MM1_mmbox_get_access.RES message, and transmits theMM1_mmbox_get_access.RES message to the mobile terminal. In this case,if the request cannot be satisfied, for example, if a message is notfound, the MMS relay/server must provide the MM1_mmbox_get_access.RESmessage including the status of an error.

The second transaction according to the present invention, which isestablished between the mobile terminal and the MMS relay/server inorder to perform the operation in cooperation with the request for anaccess permission establishment/change or an access permission conditionfor a multimedia message, employs the conventional transaction used forthe multimedia message service. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, the transaction may include the request forperforming the operation of the present invention while the operationinvolved in the conventional transaction is being performed. Forexample, the access permission condition can be established while themultimedia message is being uploaded to the MM box.

First, the transaction used for establishing access permission for amultimedia message may use an MM1 _mmbox_upload.REQ message, anMM1_mmbox_store.REQ message, an MM1 _submit.REQ message, or anMM1_forward.REQ message. The transaction for changing access permissionestablished for a multimedia message may use the MM1_mmbox_store.REQmessage, and the transaction for viewing access permission attributesfor one or more multimedia messages may use an MM1_mmbox_view.REQmessage.

The MM1_mmbox_upload.REQ message is used for the mobile terminal torequest establishment of access permission for a multimedia messagewhile uploading the multimedia message to the MM box, and theMM1_mmbox_store.REQ message is used for mobile terminal to requestaccess permission establishment for a multimedia message while movingand storing the multimedia Message from a temporary storage of the MMSrelay/server to the MM box. The MM1_submit.REQ message can be used whilea multimedia message to be forwarded is being submitted, and theMM1_forward.REQ message can be used while the multimedia message isbeing forwarded in order to request that the multimedia message must bestored in the MM box and to request an access permission establishmentfor the multimedia message. In this case, the header of each messagemust contain access permission condition information for eachpredetermined multimedia message, and the MM1_mmbox_store.REQ messagemust additionally include location information of a multimedia message,for which access permission is to be established.

In order to change access permission attributes of a multimedia messagestored in the MM box, the MM1_mmbox_store.REQ message is used. When themobile terminal requests an access permission change by using theMM1_mmbox_store.REQ message, the MM1_mmbox_store.REQ message mustinclude access permission condition information, which contains a senderaddress of the MM1_mmbox_store.REQ message, location information of acorresponding multimedia message in the MM box, access mode information,access user information, access deadline information, an access displaylist, etc. Herein, the location information must indicate a multimediamessage already stored in the MM box. This notifies the MMS relay/serverthat the requested action is not to store a new multimedia message inthe MM box, but is to change the attributes of a multimedia messagealready stored in the MM box.

When the mobile terminal requests provision of access permissionconditions established for a multimedia message already stored in the MMbox, an MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message is used. Information included in theMM1_mmbox_view.REQ message is shown in Table 1. Table 1 showsinformation included in the header of the MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message.

TABLE 1 Information element Presence Description Attribute List OptionalA list of information elements that are to be returned as a group foreach MM to be listed in the MM1_mmbox_view.RES. If absent, the defaultlist shall apply. Location Optional Location information of MMs to beInformation retrieved. List Select Optional A list of MM State or MMFlag keywords, by which MMs within the MM box can be selected, if theMessage Reference list is absent. Start Optional A number, indicatingthe index of the first MM of MMs returned in the response. If this isabsent, the first item selected is returned. Limit Optional A numberindicating the maximum number of MMs returned in the response. If thisis absent, information elements from all remaining MMs are returned.Selection Optional Selection Criteria for MMs to be retrieved. CriteriaOne or more criteria included in access permission conditions are used.

The MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message is very flexible and can be used to getany information about a multimedia message. The information shown inTable 1 is used as criteria for selecting multimedia messages to beretrieved according to an access permission information provisionrequest, and is used as criteria for selecting access permissioncondition information to be provided to the mobile terminal, from amongaccess permission conditions established for each selected multimediamessage.

The location information list shown in Table 1 represents the locationsof multimedia messages in the MM box, so that the mobile terminal canrequest the provision of access permission condition information aboutspecific multimedia messages by using the location information list.

The titles (not values) of access permission condition informationdesired to be actually provided, from among access permission conditioninformation about target multimedia messages, must be included in theattribute list shown in Table 1. For example, if an attribute list isestablished to include access mode information, access user information,access deadline information, and an access display list, all accesspermission condition information established for each multimedia messageto be provided is provided to the mobile terminal. In this case, theaccess display list referring to a multimedia message is provided onlyto the owner of the multimedia message.

The selection criteria are used for establishing access permissioncondition information as selection criteria for multimedia messages tobe retrieved, in which one or more access permission conditions areestablished according to the selection of the user. For example, theaccess mode may be established as the restricted mode. In this case,multimedia messages, whose access modes have been established as therestricted mode, are selected as retrieval targets, and the multimediamessages and access permission condition information thereabout areinserted into and transmitted with the MM1_mmbox_view.RES message. Inaddition, if the selection criteria include “access user=<address of apredetermined mobile terminal>”, “access deadline=00:00:00, May 31,2005”, and “access display list =access mode and access deadline”,multimedia messages, to which access of the predetermined mobileterminal is granted, an access deadline of which ends before May 31,2005, or an access display list of which contains the “access mode” and“access deadline”, are retrieved and information of access permissioncondition related to the multimedia messages is transmitted to themobile terminal. When the “location information list” is specified, noother selection criterion must be specified.

Finally, information satisfying the criteria shown in Table 1 isincluded in the MM1_mmbox_view.RES message. For example, if theselection criteria are established as a public mode and the attributelist includes the access deadline, only multimedia messages whose accessmode has been established as a public mode are selected, and accessdeadline information established for the selected multimedia messages isinserted into and transmitted with an MM1_mmbox_view.RES message.

When receiving the MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message, the MMS relay/serverchecks if the location information list of Table 1 is specified, and ifthe location information list is specified, the MMS relay/server selectsthe multimedia messages based on the location information list andignores the other selection criteria. Then, the MMS relay/server detectsaccess permission condition information established for the multimediamessages, which are selected based on access permission conditioninformation included in the attribute list of Table 1, and transmits thedetected access permission condition information together with the anMM1_mmbox_view.RES message to the requesting mobile terminal byassociating the detected access permission condition information withthe selected multimedia messages.

When an MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message received by the MMS relay/server doesnot include a location information list, the MMS relay/server checks ifthe selection criteria of the MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message include anaccess mode, access user information, an access deadline, or an accessdisplay list, and selects multimedia messages corresponding to an accesspermission condition included in the selection criteria. Then, the MMSrelay/server inserts the selected multimedia messages and accesspermission condition information filtered by the attribute list into anMM1_mmbox_view.RES message, and transmits the MM1_mmbox_view.RES messageto the requesting mobile terminal.

Hereinafter, the operational procedure of the MMS system based on anaccess permission establishment notification will be described withreference to FIGS. 9 to 12. The access permission establishmentnotification is used for notifying a mobile terminal, which can begranted access to a predetermined multimedia message, that the access tothe predetermined multimedia message is permitted or that theestablished access permission is revoked, the entire system operationfor which is shown in FIG. 8. FIG. 8 is a view illustrating theoperational flow of a mobile terminal based on a procedure of requestingan access permission condition information according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. Herein, a first mobile terminal 10 establishesaccess permission for a predetermined multimedia message so as todetermine whether sharing the predetermined multimedia message, and asecond mobile terminal 20 is a terminal granted access to thepredetermined multimedia message. The first mobile terminal 10 andsecond mobile terminal 20 are connected to a first MMS relay/server 30and a second MMS relay/server 40, respectively. Although MM boxes arenot shown in FIG. 8, it is assumed that interfaces exist between the MMSrelay/servers and corresponding MM boxes. In step “a”, the first mobileterminal 10 requests the first MMS relay/server 30 to notify the secondmobile terminal 20 that access to a predetermined multimedia message ispermitted. Such an access permission notification request may besubmitted for a multimedia message, for which access permission has beenestablished in advance, or may be submitted together with an accesspermission establishment request. In step “b”, the first MMSrelay/server 30 transmits an access permission notification to thesecond MMS relay/server 40 based on the access permission notificationrequest so that the second mobile terminal 20 can receive the accesspermission notification for a predetermined multimedia message. In step“c”, the second MMS relay/server 40 transmits the access permissionnotification to the second mobile terminal 20, thereby notifying thesecond mobile terminal 20 that the first mobile terminal 10 has beengranted access to the predetermined multimedia message of stored in anMM box, and provides the second mobile terminal 20 with locationinformation about the predetermined multimedia message. In step “d”, thesecond mobile terminal 20 requests the second MMS relay/server 40 toretrieve the multimedia message to which access is permitted. In step“e”, the second MMS relay/server 40 transmits a multimedia messageretrieval request to the first MMS relay/server 30. In step “f”, thefirst MMS relay/server 30 verifies whether or not the originatingrequestor (i.e. the second mobile terminal 20) has access authority forretrieval of the predetermined multimedia message. When it is verifiedthat the second mobile terminal 20 has the access authority, the firstMMS relay/server 30 transmits a response containing the predeterminedmultimedia message to the second MMS relay/server 40. Otherwise, thefirst MMS relay/server 30 may send only a response to the accessauthority, and the second mobile terminal 20 or second MMS relay/server40 may access a server having stored multimedia messages of the firstmobile terminal 10 and download the predetermined multimedia messagefrom the server. In step “g”, the second MMS relay/server 40 transmitsthe predetermined multimedia message to the second mobile terminal 20 inresponse to the retrieval request. If the first mobile terminal 10 andthe second mobile terminal 20 are connected to the same MMSrelay/server, it is unnecessary to perform the transaction (i.e. steps“b”, “e”, and “f”) between the MMS relay/servers.

The access permission notification procedure requires information, whichcontains a sender address, a recipient address, location information, anaccess notification, an access notification list, access permissioncondition information, and access-permission-related information.

In the case of establishing access permission for a predeterminedmultimedia message and forwarding a notification about the establishedaccess permission, the sender address represents the address of a mobileterminal which owns the predetermined multimedia message. In the case ofretrieving a predetermined multimedia message, the sender addressrepresents the address of a mobile terminal which has been grantedaccess to the predetermined multimedia message and requests to retrievethe predetermined multimedia message.

The recipient address represents the address of a recipient-side mobileterminal to receive the access permission notification. In the case ofretrieving a shared multimedia message, the recipient address representsthe owner of the shared multimedia message, thereby helping to verifythe address of an MMS relay/server which possesses the shared multimediamessage.

The location information represents the storage location of apredetermined multimedia message in an MM box, and is used when anaccess-permitted mobile terminal retrieves the predetermined multimediamessage or retrieves information about the predetermined multimediamessage.

The access notification (or a share-permission-related value) may takeone of two values of “yes” and “no”. Herein, the “yes” means that accesspermission for a predetermined multimedia message has been establishedto share the predetermined multimedia message, so that a notificationabout this must be transmitted to a mobile terminal granted access tothe predetermined multimedia message.

The access notification list represents a list of access permissionconditions to be provided to an access-permitted mobile terminal upon amultimedia message access permission notification. The accessnotification list has the same function as the access display list, butthe access notification list and the access display list have differentfeatures as follows. While the access display list is used uponrequesting retrieval or view of information about a multimedia message,the access notification list is included in the contents of an accesspermission notification of a multimedia message so as to be provided.

When an access notification list is specified in an access permissionnotification request, access permission condition information specifiedin the access notification list must be included a corresponding accesspermission notification. In contrast, when no access notification listis specified in an access permission notification request, acorresponding access permission notification must include accesspermission condition information based on an access display listassociated with a relevant multimedia message. When neither an accessnotification list nor an access display list is available, a defaultlist (e.g. defined by the service provider) is used if there is thedefault display list. In this case, if no default display list isavailable, the access permission notification includes no accesspermission condition information.

The access-permission-related information is used to represent that anaccess permission notification is to authorize an access to a multimediamessage or on the contrary, to revoke an access to the multimediamessage. The access-permission-related information can take one of twovalues of “yes” and “no”. Herein, the “yes” means that an access hasbeen authorized, while the “no” means that an access has been revoked.The default value should be “yes”.

When a mobile terminal requests an access permission notification for apredetermined multimedia message according to the request of the user,as described in step “a” of FIG. 8, an access permission notificationrequest message, which includes a sender address, a recipient address,location information about a predetermined multimedia message, and anaccess notification list, is transmitted to an MMS relay/server.

The MMS relay/server, which has received the access permissionnotification request message, performs a procedure shown in FIG. 9. FIG.9 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the MMS relay/serverbased on an access permission notification procedure according to anembodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 6 and 9, whenthe MMS relay/server receives an operational message relating to amultimedia message in step 301 of FIG. 6, the MMS relay/server proceedsto step 325 of FIG. 9 depending on the type of the received operationalmessage referring to the multimedia message. In step 325, the MMSrelay/server determines if the received operational message referring tothe multimedia message corresponds to an access permission notificationrequest message for a predetermined multimedia message. If it isdetermined that the received operational message corresponds to theaccess permission notification request message for the predeterminedmultimedia message, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 327, and if itis determined in step 325 that the received operational message does notcorrespond to an access permission notification request message for apredetermined multimedia message, the MMS relay/server goes to number{circle around (5)} to perform step 351 of FIG. 14. In step 327, the MMSrelay/server determines if access permission notification is availablefor the predetermined multimedia message. If it is determined thataccess permission notification is available for the predeterminedmultimedia message, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 329, and ifthe predetermined multimedia message is not such a message, the MMSrelay/server proceeds to step 349. In step 349, the MMS relay/servertransmits an error message and goes to number {circle around (2)} toreturn to step 301 of FIG. 6. In step 329, the MMS relay/serverdetermines if the access permission notification request messageincludes an access notification list. Then, when the access permissionnotification request message includes an access notification list, theMMS relay/server proceeds to step 331, and if it does not include such alist, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 339. In step 331, the MMSrelay/server detects coincident access permission condition informationbetween the access notification list and an access display listestablished for the predetermined multimedia message, by comparing thetwo lists, and proceeds to step 333.

Meanwhile, in step 339, the MMS relay/server determines if there is anaccess display list established for the predetermined multimediamessage. Then, if there is an access display list established for thepredetermined multimedia message, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step341, and if such a list does not exist, the MMS relay/server proceeds tostep 343. In step 341, the MMS relay/server detects access permissioncondition information from the access display list, and proceeds to step333.

In step 343, the MMS relay/server determines if a default list has beenestablished for the predetermined multimedia message. When a defaultlist has been established for the predetermined multimedia message, theMMS relay/server proceeds to step 345, if no default list has beenestablished, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 337. In step 345, theMMS relay/server detects access permission condition information fromthe default list, and proceeds to step 333.

In step 333, the MMS relay/server detects information corresponding tothe detected access permission condition information from thepredetermined multimedia message, inserts the detected information intoan access permission notification, and proceeds to step 335. In step335, the MMS relay/server determines if the mobile terminal to receivethe access permission notification is located within a service area.When the mobile terminal to receive the access permission notificationis located within the service area, the MMS relay/server proceeds tostep 337, if the mobile terminal is not located within the service area,the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 347 to transmit the accesspermission notification to a predetermined relay/server. In step 337,the MMS relay/server sends the access permission notification to themobile terminal and goes to number {circle around (2)} to return to step301 of FIG. 6.

Hereinafter, transaction between a mobile terminal and an MMSrelay/server based on the access permission notification will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12 according to embodiments ofthe present invention. The transaction between a mobile terminal and anMMS relay/server based on the access permission notification may beperformed by only newly-added transaction, by utilizing the conventionaltransaction, or by a combination of the newly-added transaction and theconventional transaction.

A first embodiment of the present invention, in which all transactionrequired between a mobile terminal and an MMS relay/server based on theaccess permission notification is newly added, will be described withreference to FIG. 10. FIG. 10 is a view illustrating the flow ofmessages based on an access permission notification procedure accordingto the first embodiment of the present invention. The newly-addedtransaction based on the procedure shown in FIG. 10 is presented inTable 2. Table 2 presents an overview of newly-added transaction andcorresponding operations based on the access permission notificationprocedure according to the first embodiment of the present invention.Steps associated with the newly-added transaction shown in Table 2correspond to the steps described with reference to FIG. 8.

TABLE 2 Step Dedicated transaction Description a MM1_send_notif.REQ/RESRequest to send access permission notification about a shared MM aMM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ/RES Set access permission condition and Requesttransmission of access permission notification bMM4_notification.REQ/RES Route forward the access permissionnotification to recipient side c MM1_notif_share.REQ/RES Notify therecipient mobile terminal d MM1_retrieve_share.REQ Request to retrievethe shared MM e MM4_retrieve.REQ Route forward the request to retrievethe shared MM f MM4_retrieve.RES Send the shared MM, having beenretrieved, to recipient MMS Relay/Server g MM1_retrieve_share.RES Passforward the shared MM, having been retrieved, to recipient mobileterminal

An access permission notification request of a mobile terminal may bemade independently or together with an access permission establishmentor change for a predetermined multimedia message. Therefore, thetransaction includes MM1_send_notif.REQ/RES messages for independentlyrequesting an access permission notification, andMM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ/RES messages for requesting an accesspermission notification together with an access permission establishmentor change.

Referring to FIG. 8, in step “a”, the first mobile terminal 10 transmitsthe MM1_send_notifREQ/RES message to the first MMS relay/server 30, inorder to request the first MMS relay/server 30 to notify the secondmobile terminal 20 that access to a predetermined multimedia message ispermitted. In this case, the MM1 _send_notif REQ/RES message includesinformation, which contains a sender address, a recipient address,location information of the predetermined multimedia message, and anaccess notification list. When receiving the MM1 _send_notifREQ/RESmessage, the first MMS relay/server 30 transmits the MM1_send_notif.RESmessage including a response for accepting or refusing the request backto the first mobile terminal 10, and then performs the operationalprocedure shown in FIG. 9.

Referring to FIG. 10, in step 401, the first mobile terminal 10 requeststhe first MMS relay/server 30 to establish the access mode of apredetermined multimedia message to the restricted mode and providesinformation about users who can access the predetermined multimediamessage. At the same time, the first mobile terminal 10 requests thefirst MMS relay/server 30 through the MM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ messageto notify recipients included in the user information that access to thepredetermined multimedia message is permitted. Therefore, theMM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message includes a sender address, locationinformation of the predetermined multimedia message, an access mode,access user information, access deadline information, an access displaylist, an access notification, an access notification list, etc.

When receiving the MM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message, the first MMSrelay/server 30 transmits an MM1_mmbox_set_access.RES message to thefirst mobile terminal 10 as a response message for accepting the request(step 403). Then, the first MMS relay/server 30 performs the operationalprocedure shown in FIG. 9, thereby inserting an access permissionnotification into an MM4_notification.REQ message and transmitting theMM4_notification.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 40 in step405. The access permission notification contains a sender address, arecipient address, and location information of a predeterminedmultimedia message, and also contains an access mode, access userinformation, and access deadline information based on informationincluded in the notification list. The MM4_notification.REQ message hasa function similar to the MM1_notification.REQ message for theconventional transaction. Herein, the application of the transaction hasbeen extended to the transaction between originating and recipientrelay/servers, since the multimedia message to be retrieved based on theprocedure of FIG. 10 according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention resides at the originating relay/server.

When receiving the MM4_notification.REQ message, the second MMSrelay/server 40 transmits an MM4_notification.RES message to the firstMMS relay/server 30 in step 407 in response to the MM4_notification.REQmessage, and proceeds to step 409. In step 409, the second MMSrelay/server 40 transmits an MM1_notif_share.REQ message to the secondmobile terminal 20 in order to notify the second mobile terminal 20 thataccess permission to the predetermined multimedia message has beenestablished by the first mobile terminal 10. In step 411, the secondmobile terminal 20 transmits an MM1_notif_share.RES message in responseto the p MM1_notif_share.REQ message, provides the received informationto its user, and proceeds to step 413. Herein, the MM1_notif_share.REQmessage contains a sender address, location information of apredetermined multimedia message, and also contains access modeinformation, access user information, and access deadline information,which have been received through the MM4_notification.REQ message.

In step 413, the second mobile terminal 20 transmits anMM1_retrieve_share.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 40according to the request of the user in order to request the retrievalof a multimedia message, for which access permission notification hasbeen received. The MM1_retrieve_share.REQ message contains a senderaddress, a recipient address, and location information of apredetermined multimedia message. Herein, the sender address correspondsto the address of the second mobile terminal 20, and the recipientaddress corresponds to the address of the first mobile terminal 10. Inthis case, if the second mobile terminal 20 has previously received andstored the access user information and/or access deadline informationassociated with the multimedia message requested to be retrieved, thesecond mobile terminal 20 determines if the user's retrieval requestmatches with the access user information and access deadlineinformation. If the user's retrieval request does not match with theaccess user information and/or access deadline information, this isinformed to the user. Such a determination procedure is performed alsoby the second MMS relay/server 40. That is, when the second MMSrelay/server 40 receives the MM1_retrieve_share.REQ message in step 413,if the second MMS relay/server 40 has stored the access user informationand access deadline information associated with the predeterminedmultimedia message, the second MMS relay/server 40 determines if theretrieval request for a predetermined multimedia message matches withthe access user information and access deadline information. If it isdetermined that the user's retrieval request does not match with theaccess user information and/or access deadline information, this isinformed to the user. In contrast, if it is determined that the user'sretrieval request matches with the access user information and/or accessdeadline information, the second MMS relay/server 40 determines if thepredetermined multimedia message exists in the MM box 60 connected withthe second MMS relay/server 40. When it is determined that thepredetermined multimedia message does not exist in the MM box 60, thesecond MMS relay/server 40 proceeds to step 415, in which the second MMSrelay/server 40 transmits an MM4_retreive.REQ message to the first MMSrelay/server 30 possessing the predetermined multimedia message, therebyrequesting that the first MMS relay/server 30 retrieves thepredetermined multimedia message. When receiving the MM4_retreive.REQmessage, the first MMS relay/server 30 verifies whether or not theretrieval requestor (i.e. the second mobile terminal 20) is anaccess-permitted mobile terminal in regards to the predeterminedmultimedia message. When it is verified that the second mobile terminal20 is an access-permitted mobile terminal, the first MMS relay/server 30proceeds to step 417, in which the first MMS relay/server 30 transmitsan MM4_retreive.RES message including the requested multimedia messageto the second MMS relay/server 40. Herein, the MM4_retreive.REQ messagecontains a sender address (i.e. the address of the second mobileterminal 20) and location information of the predetermined multimediamessage. The procedure of determining, by the first MMS relay/server 30,if the retrieval requestor (i.e. the second mobile terminal 20) is anaccess-permitted mobile terminal in regards to the predeterminedmultimedia message is as follows. First, the first MMS relay/server 30verifies whether or not the requested multimedia message exists in thefirst MM box 50 connected with the first MMS relay/server 30. When it isverified that the requested multimedia message exists in the first MMbox 50, the first MMS relay/server 30 checks the access mode of thepredetermined multimedia message so as to determine if the predeterminedmultimedia message can be shared. When the access mode of thepredetermined multimedia message is established as the restricted mode,the first MMS relay/server 30 verifies whether or not the sender addressis included in access user information associated with the predeterminedmultimedia message. When the access deadline for the predeterminedmultimedia message has been established, the first MMS relay/server 30verifies whether or not the established access deadline has expired.When such all conditions are satisfied, the first MMS relay/server 30transmits the predetermined multimedia message together with anMM4_retrieve.RES message, by inserting the predetermined multimediamessage into the body portion of the MM4_retrieve.RES message. In thiscase, if there is an access display list established for the requestedmultimedia message, the first MMS relay/server 30 inserts accesspermission condition information included in the access display listinto the header of the MM4_retrieve.RES message to be transmitted.

Accordingly, the MM4_retrieve.RES message contains the sender address(i.e. the address of the first mobile terminal 10), the recipientaddress (i.e. the address of the second mobile terminal 20), and thepredetermined multimedia message, and additionally, may contain accessmode information, access user information, and access deadlineinformation according to circumstances.

When receiving the MM4_retrieve.RES message in step 417, the second MMSrelay/server 40 transmits an MM1_retrieve_share.RES message to thesecond mobile terminal 20, thereby responding to the retrieval requestof the second mobile terminal 20. The MM1_retrieve_share.RES messagecontains the sender address (i.e. the address of the first mobileterminal 10), the recipient address (i.e. the address of the secondmobile terminal 20), and the predetermined multimedia message, andadditionally, may contain access mode information, access userinformation, and access deadline information if these informationelements are included in the MM4_retrieve.RES message. When receivingthe MM1_retrieve_share.RES message, the second mobile terminal 20displays the received information so that the user can view the receivedinformation.

Next, a procedure of notifying a mobile terminal of access permissionfor a multimedia message by using the conventional transaction accordingto a second embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to FIG. 11. FIG. 11 is a view illustrating the flow ofmessages based on an access permission notification procedure accordingto the second embodiment of the present invention. Table 3 presents anoverview of the conventional transaction, which is used for theprocedure shown in FIG. 11, while being mapped with the newly-addedtransaction based on the first embodiment of the present invention.

TABLE 3 Corresponding Conventional Step Added Transaction Transaction 1MM1_send_notif.REQ/RES MM1_submit.REQ/RES 1b MM1_mmbox_set_access.MM1_mmbox_upload.REQ/RES REQ/RES or MM1_mmbox_store.REQ/RES 2MM4_notification.REQ/RES MM4_forward.REQ 3 MM1_notif_share.REQ/RESMM1_notification.REQ 4 MM1_retrieve_share.REQ MM1_retrieve.REQ 5MM4_retrieve.REQ — 6 MM4_retrieve.RES — 7 MM1_retrieve_share.RESMM1_retrieve.RES

Referring to FIG. 11, in step 431, the first mobile terminal 10transmits an MM1_submit.REQ message to the first MMS relay/server 30, inorder to requests the first MMS relay/server 30 to notify the secondmobile terminal 20 that access to a predetermined multimedia message ispermitted. When receiving the MM1_submit.REQ message, the first MMSrelay/server 30 transmits an MM1_submit.RES message in response to theMM1_submit.REQ message of the first mobile terminal 10, therebynotifying the first mobile terminal 10 that the access permissionnotification request has been accepted.

The MM1_submit.REQ message contains a sender address, a recipientaddress, location information of the predetermined multimedia message,an access notification list, and a share-permission-related value forthe predetermined multimedia message. Since such an MM1_submit.REQmessage is transmitted originally with a multimedia message, theMM1_submit.REQ message must include the share-permission-related valuefor the predetermined multimedia message so as to distinguish the caseof using the MM1_submit.REQ message as an access permission notificationrequest message from the original use. Accordingly, when receiving theMM1_submit.REQ message, the first MMS relay/server 30 must verifywhether or not the share-permission-related value for the multimediamessage is “yes”. When the share-permission-related value for themultimedia message is “yes”, the first MMS relay/server 30 performs thesame operation as it does when receiving the MM1_send_notif.REQ message.

Although it is not shown in FIG. 11, in step 431, the first mobileterminal 10 may establish access permission by transmitting anMM1_mmbox_upload.REQ message and thereby request an access permissionnotification. When receiving the MM1_mmbox_upload.REQ message, the firstMMS relay/server 30 transmits an MM1_mmbox_upload.RES message to thefirst mobile terminal 10 in response to the MM1_mmbox_upload.REQmessage. The MM1_mmbox_upload.REQ message contains a sender address, anaccess mode, access user information, access deadline information, anaccess display list, an access notification, an access notificationlist, and a multimedia message to be uploaded. When receiving theMM1_mmbox_upload.REQ message, the first MMS relay/server 30 stores areceived multimedia message in an MM box, and transmits locationinformation of the stored multimedia message to the first mobileterminal 10. Then, the first MMS relay/server 30 performs the operationsrelating to an access permission condition establishment and thenotification to access-permitted mobile terminals in the same manner asit does when receiving the MM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message.

Also, although it is not shown in FIG. 11, in step 431, the first mobileterminal 10 may establish access permission by transmitting anMM1_mmbox_store.REQ message and thereby request an access permissionnotification. The MM1_mmbox_store.REQ message contains the sameinformation as that of the MM1_mmbox set access.REQ message. The firstmobile terminal 10 may request the MMS relay/server not to change accesspermission establishment for a predetermined multimedia message and totransmit a notification about the access permission to the predeterminedmultimedia message, by inserting only a sender address, locationinformation of a multimedia message in an MM box, an accessnotification, and an access notification list in the MM1_mmbox_store.REQmessage.

Referring again to FIG. 11, in step 435, the first MMS relay/server 30transmits an MM4_forward.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 40,thereby notifying the second MMS relay/server 40 of the accesspermission. That is, the first MMS relay/server 30 inserts accesspermission notification information into the MM4_forward.REQ message byperforming the procedure shown in FIG. 9, and transmits theMM4_forward.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 40. The accesspermission notification information contains a sender address, arecipient address, and location information of the predeterminedmultimedia message, and additionally, may contain an access mode, accessuser information, and access deadline information based on informationincluded in the notification list. Also, the MM4_forward.REQ messagecontains a share-permission-related value for the predeterminedmultimedia message because of the same reason as the MM1_submit.REQmessage. Accordingly, when receiving the MM4_forward.REQ message, thesecond MMS relay/server 40 detects the shared-multimedia-message fromthe received MM4_forward.REQ message first of all, identifies thepurpose of the MM4_forward.REQ message, and processes theMM4_forward.REQ message based on the purpose.

The second MMS relay/server 40 transmits an MM4_forward.RES message instep 437 in response to the MM4_forward.REQ message, and proceeds tostep 439. In step 439, the second MMS relay/server 40 transmits anMM1_notification.REQ message to the second mobile terminal 20, therebynotifying the second mobile terminal 20 of the establishment of accesspermission to the predetermined multimedia message. When receiving theMM1_notification.REQ message, the second mobile terminal 20 transmits anMM1_notification.RES message to the second MMS relay/server 40 in step441 in response to the MM1_notification.REQ message. TheMM1_notification.REQ message contains a sender address and locationinformation of the predetermined multimedia message, and also containsaccess mode information, access user information, access deadlineinformation, and a share-permission-related value for the predeterminedmultimedia message which have been received through the MM4_forward.REQmessage.

Thereafter, in step 443, the second mobile terminal 20 transmits anMM1_retrieve.REQ message to second MMS relay/server 40, therebyrequesting retrieval of the predetermined multimedia message. TheMM1_retrieve.REQ message contains the same information as theMM1_retrieve_share.REQ message. Herein, the operational procedure of thesecond mobile terminal 20 for transmitting the MM1_retrieve.REQ messageand the operational procedure of the second MMS relay/server 40 havingreceived the MM1_retrieve.REQ message are identical to the operationalprocedure of the second mobile terminal 20 for transmitting theMM1_retieve_share.REQ message and the operational procedure of thesecond MMS relay/server 40 having received the MM1_retrieve_share.REQmessage, which are shown in FIG. 10, respectively.

When receiving the MM1_retrieve.REQ message, the second MMS relay/server40 transmits the MM4_retrieve.REQ message to the first MMS relay/server30 in step 445, thereby requesting retrieval of the predeterminedmultimedia message. The first MMS relay/server 30 performs the operationbased on the request, inserts a result of the performance into anMM4_retrieve.RES message, and transmits the MM4₁₃retrieve.RES message tothe second MMS relay/server 40 in step 447. The procedure of steps 445and 447 are identical to that of steps 415 and 417 of FIG. 10.

When receiving the MM4_retrieve.RES message, the second MMS relay/server40 transmits an MM1_retrieve.RES message to the second mobile terminal20 in step 449, thereby transmitting the retrieved multimedia message.The MM1_retrieve.RES message contains the same information as that ofthe MM1_retrieve_share.REQ message, and the operations of the second MMSrelay/server 40 and second mobile terminal 20 for processing theMM1_retrieve.RES message are same as those of the second MMSrelay/server 40 and second mobile terminal 20 for processing theMM1_retrieve_share.REQ message.

Next, a procedure of notifying a mobile terminal of access permission byusing a combination of the conventional transaction and newly-addedtransaction according to a third embodiment of the present inventionwill be described with reference to FIG. 12. FIG. 12 is a viewillustrating the flow of messages based on an access permissionnotification procedure according to the third embodiment of the presentinvention. In this embodiment of the present invention, the choice ofthe transaction for each step is independent on the transaction chosenin the previous or next step. In other words, it is possible to combinethe conventional transaction and newly-added transaction in differentways. Referring to FIG. 12, the first mobile terminal 10 and the firstMMS relay/server 30 use added MM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ/RES transactionin order to request/respond an access permission notification (steps 461and 463), and use added MM4_notification.REQ/RES transaction in order toforward the access permission notification from the first MMSrelay/server 30 to the second MMS relay/server 40 (steps 465 and 467).Then, in steps 469 and 471, the conventional MM1_notification.REQ/REStransaction is used to forward the access permission notification fromthe second MMS relay/server 40 to the second mobile terminal 20.Thereafter, the second mobile terminal 20 requests the retrieval of amultimedia message to which access is permitted, by using theconventional MM1_retrieve.REQ transaction (step 473). In steps 475 and477, the first MMS relay/server 30 and the second MMS relay/server 40use added MM4_retrieve.REQ/RES transaction in order to transmit theretrieval request from the second MMS relay/server 40 to the first MMSrelay/server 30 and to retrieve the multimedia message to which accessis permitted. In step 479, the conventional MM1_retrieve.RES transactionis used for the second mobile terminal 20 to transmit the requestedmultimedia message, to which access is permitted, to the second mobileterminal 20.

The above description referring to FIGS. 8 to 12 has been given aboutthe procedures of notifying a mobile terminal that access to apredetermined multimedia message is permitted. The following descriptionwill be given about a procedure of notifying a mobile terminal thataccess permission established for a predetermined multimedia message isrevoked.

A revocation notification concerning access permission may be performedby means of newly-added information elements or by means of theconventional information elements. In the case of using the newly-addedinformation elements, the revocation notification concerning accesspermission is achieved by inserting the above-mentionedaccess-permission-related information into appropriate transaction. Theaccess-permission-related information may take one of two values of“yes” and “no”, in which the “yes” represents that access to apredetermined multimedia message is permitted, and the “no” representsthat access permission previously established for a predeterminedmultimedia message is revoked. Herein, the default value is establishedas “yes”. Therefore, when an access permission notification transactionincluding the value of the access-permission-related informationestablished as “no”, a recipient-side user can understand that his/herown access authority has been revoked.

A method of inserting the access-permission-related information into atransaction will now be described. When access to a predeterminedmultimedia message is permitted, the access-permission-relatedinformation does not need to be specified in any transaction if thedefault value is “yes”. However, when access permission to apredetermined multimedia message is revoked, theaccess-permission-related information must be included in a transactiontransmitted to a recipient-side terminal or a MMS relay/server connectedto the recipient-side terminal so as to notify the recipient-sideterminal of the revocation of access permission. To this end, theMM1_notification.REQ message and the MM4_notification.REQ message addedaccording to an embodiment of the present invention include theaccess-permission-related information. Also, it is possible that theowner of a predetermined multimedia message notifies a mobile terminalgranted access a predetermined multimedia message that the accesspermission is revoked, by inserting the access-permission-relatedinformation into an MM1_send_notif.REQ message and anMM1_mmbox_set_access.REQ message.

The procedure of notifying a mobile terminal that access permission isrevoked by using the conventional transaction is similar to theprocedure of notifying a mobile terminal that access permission isrevoked by using the added transaction. For instance, theaccess-permission-related information may be included in anMM4_forward.REQ message and an MM1_notification.REQ message. If an MMSrelay/server which receives the access revocation notification requestcan determine if the notification concerns an authorization or arevocation, “authorized access” can optionally be present. Also, theaccess-permission-related information may optionally be included in anMM1_submit.REQ message or MM1_mmbox_upload.REQ message.

The revocation notification concerning access permission may beperformed through transmission of information elements. Accesspermission established for a predetermined multimedia message may berevoked for various reasons. For example, the access permission isrevoked when the access deadline for the predetermined multimediamessage has expired (first case), when the access mode of for thepredetermined multimedia message is changed to the private mode (secondcase), and when a corresponding user is removed from the access userinformation of the predetermined multimedia message (third case).

When the first case occurs, it is possible to notify the correspondingmobile terminal that access permission has been revoked by transmittingthe access deadline information of the predetermined multimedia messageto the corresponding mobile terminal. When the second case occurs, it ispossible to notify the corresponding mobile terminal that accesspermission has been revoked by transmitting the access mode informationof the predetermined multimedia message to the corresponding mobileterminal. When the third case occurs, updated access user informationassociated with the predetermined multimedia message is transmitted to amobile terminal for which the access permission has been revoked.However, in this case, the provision of the access user information mayraise an important privacy issue because the access user informationincludes various information about other users. Therefore, it ispreferred that the sensitive information (e.g. access mode informationand/or access deadline information) which is to be provided to acorresponding user is replaced with a value representing that accesspermission has been revoked, thereby notifying the corresponding userthat access permission has been revoked. In the above-mentioned cases,the access mode information and/or access deadline information must havebeen provided through an access display list.

Hereinafter, the procedure of searching for a multimedia message storedin an MM box according to an embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 13 to 15. The above description hasbeen given with respect to the procedure of retrieving only a multimediamessage for which access permission has been notified. If the accessmode of a multimedia message is established as the public, it isimpossible to send an access permission notification to everybody.Therefore, a procedure in which a mobile terminal searches for amultimedia message stored in an MM box without an access permissionnotification will now be described).

First, the operation of an MMS system based on a multimedia messagesearch procedure will be described with reference to FIG. 13. FIG. 13 isa view illustrating a procedure of searching for a multimedia messageaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. In step “k”, thefirst mobile terminal 10 establishes the access mode of a predeterminedmultimedia message as the public mode, associates, for example thekeyword “Australia”, with the predetermined multimedia message, anduploads the predetermined multimedia message to the first MMSrelay/server 30. In step “I”, the second mobile terminal 20 transmits asearch request for multimedia messages associated with the keyword“Australia” to the second MMS relay/server 40. In step “m”, the secondMMS relay/server 40 searches its own MM box for multimedia messagesassociated with the keyword “Australia”, and transmits a search requestfor multimedia messages associated with the keyword “Australia” to adifferent MMS relay/server, that is, to the first MMS relay/server 30.Then, the first MMS relay/server 30 searches for multimedia messagesassociated with the keyword “Australia” based on the multimedia messagesearch request and transmits found multimedia messages to the second MMSrelay/server 40 in step “n”. Next, the second MMS relay/server 40gathers the multimedia message found by its own search and themultimedia messages received from the first MMS relay/server 30, andtransmits the gathered multimedia messages to the second mobile terminal20 in step “o”.

In order to search for multimedia messages, as described above, themultimedia message search request to be transmitted contains a locationinformation list of multimedia messages, search scope information,search address information, and a requestor address.

The location information list of multimedia messages contains a list oflocations of predetermined multimedia messages. Therefore, when thelocation information list of multimedia messages has been established,predetermined multimedia messages included in the established locationinformation list are searched for. If no location information list ofmultimedia messages has been established, the search scope and thesearch addresses must be established.

The search scope stipulates a search scope of the multimedia messages,and can take one of three values of “private”, “restricted” and“global”. The term “private” represents that only the MM box account forthe user of a mobile terminal which makes the search request isestablished as a search scope. Herein, the account means the set ofmultimedia messages stored in an MM box belonging to a particular user.The term “restricted” represents that only specific users' MM boxaccounts have been established as a search scope. The term “global”represents that all users' accounts have been established as a searchscope.

The search address provides the list of particular users' addressesincluded in a search scope when the search scope is established as“restricted”, and the MM box accounts corresponding to the addressesmust be searched for.

The requestor address represents the address of an originator (i.e. amobile terminal) which requests a multimedia message search. Therequestor address is usefully used when the location information list ofmultimedia messages includes a multimedia message existing outside theMM box of the search requestor. When the search scope has beenestablished as “restricted” or “global”, an MMS relay/server receivingthe search request uses the requestor address in order to check if thesearch requestor has the right to get information about a particular MMbox.

Apart from the information elements described above, access modeinformation, access user information, and access deadline informationcan be used in order to establish a multimedia message which is to besearched for or in order to filter criteria for specific informationdesired to be provided from among information associated with a foundmultimedia message. Before such information is provided to a requestinguser, the requesting user is first authorized through an access displaylist by the owner of the multimedia message.

When requesting a search for a multimedia message according to therequest of the user, a mobile terminal inserts the above-mentionedinformation into the search request for the multimedia message.

When a search for a multimedia message is requested, an MMS relay/serveroperates based on a procedure shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. FIGS. 14 and 15are flowcharts illustrating the operation of an MMS relay/server basedon a multimedia message search procedure according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. Referring to FIGS. 6, 14 and 15, when receiving arequest for a multimedia message service (MMS) in step 301 of FIG. 6,the MMS relay/server identifies the received request as an MMS-relatedrequest and proceeds to step 351 of FIG. 14. In step 351, the MMSrelay/server determines if the MMS-related request corresponds to amultimedia message search request. If it is determined in step 351 thatthe MMS-related request corresponds to a multimedia message searchrequest, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 353, but if it is not amultimedia message search request, the MMS relay/server goes to number{circle around (2)} to return to step 301 of FIG. 6. In step 353, theMMS relay/server determines if a multimedia message location informationlist has been established in the multimedia message search request,thereby identifying if the multimedia message search request correspondsto a search request for a specified multimedia message. If themultimedia message search request corresponds to a search request for aspecified multimedia message, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 355,but if it is a search request for a non-specified multimedia message,the MMS relay/server goes to number {circle around (6)} to proceed tostep 369 of FIG. 15. In step 355, the MMS relay/server determines if thespecified multimedia message exists in an MM box connected to the MMSrelay/server. If the specified multimedia message exists in the MM box,the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 357, but if it does not exist inthe MM box, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 381 in which the MMSrelay/server requests a different MMS relay/server to search for thespecified multimedia message.

In step 357, the MMS relay/server checks if the access mode establishedfor the specified multimedia message is the public mode. If the accessmode established for the specified multimedia message is the publicmode, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 363, but if it is anon-public mode, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 359. In step 359,the MMS relay/server checks if the access mode established for thespecified multimedia message is the restricted mode. If the access modeestablished for the specified multimedia message is the restricted mode,the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 361, but if it is not a restrictedmode, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 365. When it is determinedas the checking results of steps 357 and 359 that the access modeestablished for the specified multimedia message is neither the publicmode nor the restricted mode, this means that the access mode of thespecified multimedia message is the private mode. In this case, sincethe specified multimedia message of the private mode cannot be searchedfor to be provided, the MMS relay/server transmits an error message instep 365, and goes to number {circle around (2)} to return to step 301of FIG. 6. In step 363, the MMS relay/server transmits either thespecified multimedia message or information about the specifiedmultimedia message, and goes to number {circle around (2)} to return tostep 301 of FIG. 6.

Meanwhile, the MMS relay/server, which has determined that the accessmode of the specified multimedia message is the restricted mode, checksif the address of the search requestor for the specified multimediamessage is contained in access user information established for thespecified multimedia message (step 361). If the address of the searchrequestor is contained in the access user information, the MMSrelay/server proceeds to step 363, but if the search requestor is notcontained in the access user information, the MMS relay/server proceedsto step 365. In step 363, the MMS relay/server transmits the specifiedmultimedia message to the terminal of the search requestor and goes tonumber {circle around (2)} to return to step 301 of FIG. 6.

Meanwhile, when it is determined in step 353 that the multimedia messagesearch request is not aimed at a specified multimedia message, the MMSrelay/server identifies a search scope contained in the multimediamessage search request (step 367 of FIG. 15), and proceeds to step 369.In step 369, the MMS relay/server determines if the search scope isestablished as “restricted”. If the search scope is established as“restricted”, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 375, but if it isnot established as “restricted”, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step375. In step 371, the MMS relay/server checks if an MM box accountcorresponding to a search address contained in the multimedia messagesearch request exists in the MM box connected to the MMS relay/server.If the MM box account exists in the MM box, the MMS relay/serverproceeds to step 373, but if the MM box account does not exist in the MMbox, the MMS relay/server proceeds to step 381 in which the MMSrelay/server requests a different MMS relay/server to search acorresponding multimedia message. In step 375, the MMS relay/serverdetermines if the search scope is established as “private”. If thesearch scope is established as “private”, the MMS relay/server proceedsto step 377, but if it is not established as “private”, the MMSrelay/server proceeds to step 379. In step 377, the MMS relay/serverdetects and transmits a multimedia message stored in the MM box storagearea of the search requestor, and goes to number {circle around (2)} toreturn to step 301 of FIG. 6. In step 379, the MMS relay/server detectsand transmits access-permitted multimedia messages stored in all MMboxes to the search requestor, and goes to number {circle around (2)} toreturn to step 301 of FIG. 6. Herein, the “access-permitted multimediamessages” represents multimedia messages, of which the access modes areestablished as “restricted” or “public”, and for which the access userinformation contains the address of the requestor when their accessmodes have been established as “restricted”.

The transaction based on the multimedia message search procedure isshown in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Step Transaction Description k MM1_mmbox_upload. Upload MM + setaccess permission REQ/RES to “public” l MM1_mmbox_view.REQ Request tosearch for available MMs m MM4_mmbox_view.REQ Forward the search requestto other Relay/Servers n MM4_mmbox_view.RES Response received from otherRelay/Servers o MM1_mmbox_view.RES Gather responses + send answer backto requestor

Steps of Table 4 correspond to steps of FIG. 13. In step “k”, theMM1_mmbox_upload.REQ/RES transaction performed in step “k” is same asthat described above, in which a multimedia message is uploaded and theaccess mode of the uploaded multimedia message is established as apublic mode according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step “l”, the second mobile terminal 20 transmits anMM1_mmbox_view.REQ message to the second MMS relay/server 40, therebyrequesting the second MMS relay/server 40 to provide the second mobileterminal 20 with a list of all or part of multimedia messages currentlystored in the user's MM box, as well as with information about themultimedia messages themselves. In addition to the above, theMM1_mmbox_view.REQ message contains a selection item for enabling thesecond mobile terminal 20 to extend the range of the multimedia messagesearch to other users' MM boxes as well. The MM1_mmbox_view.REQ messagecontains a message reference list (multimedia message locationinformation list), a search scope, a search address, a requestoraddress, an access mode, access user information, and access deadlinebased on establishment of the search requestor.

In this case, if the multimedia message location information list isspecified, the second mobile terminal 20 does not specify the searchscope and the search address. The search address is specified only whenthe search scope is established as “restricted”. The second mobileterminal 20 must specify the requestor address only if the multimediamessage location information list contains location information outsidethe MM box storage area of the search requestor, or if the search scopeis established as “restricted” or “public”. In addition, the secondmobile terminal 20 must establish the access mode, access userinformation, and access deadline based on the following conditions. Thatis, the access mode, access user information, and access deadline areincluded in the selection criteria of the MM1_mmbox_view.REQ only if itis requested by the user. Also, the access mode, access userinformation, and access deadline are listed in the attribute list of theMM1_mmbox_view.REQ if it is requested by the user that they be displayedin a response to the search request.

When receiving the MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message, the second MMSrelay/server 40 searches for an MMS relay/server corresponding tolocation information included in a multimedia message locationinformation list when the multimedia message location information listhas been specified in the MM1_mmbox_view.REQ message. When the locationinformation of the multimedia message location information listcorresponds to a different MMS relay/server, the second MMS relay/server40 transmits an MM4_mmbox_view.REQ message to the different MMSrelay/server, thereby requesting the search. In contrast, when thelocation information of the multimedia message location information listcorresponds to the second MMS relay/server 40 itself, the second MMSrelay/server 40 detects the requested multimedia message. Then, secondMMS relay/server 40 performs steps 357 to 365 of FIG. 14 based on theaccess mode established in the multimedia message, thereby transmittingan access-permitted multimedia message.

In this case, from among access permission condition informationestablished for the access-permitted multimedia message, only accesspermission condition information matching with access permissionconditions included in a previously established access display list isselected and transmitted. If no access permission condition is containedin the access display list, the access permission condition informationmust be presented as being “hidden”, or access permission conditioninformation included in a default list is selected and transmitted ifthe default list exists.

If a specific multimedia message is supposed to be located in thecurrent MMS relay/server (i.e. in the second MMS relay/server 40), butcannot be found, an error message is transmitted from the second MMSrelay/server 40 to the second mobile terminal 20.

Meanwhile, when the multimedia message location information list is notestablished in the MM1 _mmbox_view.REQ message, the second MMSrelay/server 40 checks the search scope. If the search scope isestablished as “private”, the second MMS relay/server 40 searches formultimedia messages stored in the MM box of the search requestor andprovides the found multimedia message.

If the search scope is established as “restricted”, the second MMSrelay/server 40 checks the search address list. Then, the second MMSrelay/server 40 performs the following tasks with respect to eachaddress contained in the search address list. The second MMSrelay/server 40 checks where the user's account corresponding to eachaddress is located. Then, if the checked user's account is associatedwith a different MMS relay/server, the second MMS relay/server 40transmits an MM4_mmbox_view.REQ message to the different MMSrelay/server, thereby requesting the different MMS relay/server tosearch for the corresponding multimedia message. In contrast, if theuser's account is maintained by the second MMS relay/server 40 itself,the second MMS relay/server 40 detects an access-permitted multimediamessage based on the multimedia message access permission conditionsstored by the user.

If the search scope is established as “global”, the second MMSrelay/server 40 checks the MM box accounts of all users, and requestsdifferent MMS relay/servers to search for the corresponding multimediamessages.

In step “m”, the second MMS relay/server 40 transmits anMM4_mmbox_view.REQ message to the first MMS relay/server 30, therebynotifying the first MMS relay/server 30 that the MM box of the firstmobile terminal 10 is connected with the first MMS relay/server 30, andtransmitting the multimedia message search request of the second mobileterminal 20 to the first MMS relay/server 30. The operational procedureof the first MMS relay/server 30 is similar to that of the second MMSrelay/server 40, except that the first MMS relay/server 30 transmits anerror message to the second MMS relay/server 40 when receiving a requestwith a search scope established as “private”.

Thereafter, when having completed the search for a correspondingmultimedia message, the first MMS relay/server 30 transmits the foundmultimedia message in step “n” by inserting the found multimedia messageinto an MM4_mmbox_view.RES message. The MM4_mmbox_view.RES messagecontains location information of the multimedia message to betransmitted, the address of the owner of the multimedia message if it isspecified in the MM4_mmbox_view.REQ message, and access permissioncondition information associated with the multimedia message ifrequested and authorized by the owner of the multimedia message. Also,if any other attributes (e.g. keywords associated with the multimediamessage) are established in the MM4_mmbox_view.REQ message, theseattributes may be included in the MM4_mmbox_view.RES message.

Response elements of a predetermined multimedia message, as describedabove, must not be returned as separate information elements in theheader, but must be contained in a single list. For instance, theresponse elements may be contained in a single list in a singleinformation element in the header, or a single list in the body part ofthe message.

In step “o”, the second MMS relay/server 40 transmits anMM1_mmbox_view.RES message to the second mobile terminal 20, therebytransmits the found multimedia message to the second mobile terminal 20.

Information contained in the MM1_mmbox_view.RES message is similar tothat contained in the MM4 _mmbox_view.REQ message. In this case, thesecond MMS relay/server 40 forms a search result by merging allMM4_mmbox_view.RES messages received from different MMS relay/servers,in which the search result includes a response from the MM box of thesecond MMS relay/server 40 itself. For example, the second MMSrelay/server 40 can merge the responses (messages) as a series of lists,which contains one list per returned multimedia message, in the bodypart of the message. The final and unified search result transmitted tothe search requestor (i.e. the second mobile terminal 20) has the sameformat as that described for the MM4_mmbox_view.RES message.

While the present invention has been shown and described with referenceto certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims. For instance, the present invention canbe applied to a search for multimedia messages stored in a multimediamessage box on the Web through the Internet, and the access permissionconditions may be changed. That is, the multimedia message-relatedoperations performed through the mobile terminals can be performed onthe Web through the Internet. Accordingly, the scope of the invention isnot to be limited by the above embodiments but by the claims and theequivalents thereof.

As described above, the present invention provides a mechanism forsharing and searching for multimedia messages stored in an MM box.According to the mechanism of the present invention, the MMS client hasthe possibility to associate an access mode (“public”, “restricted”, or“private”) to any multimedia message stored in or uploaded to an MM box.When a multimedia message is permitted to be shared, the MMS clients whohas been granted access to the multimedia message can be notified of theshared multimedia message. When the MMS client requests to view orretrieve a multimedia message, the MMS relay/server checks if the MMSclient has been granted permission to access to the multimedia message.If the MMS client has been granted permission to access to themultimedia message, the MMS relay/server allows the MMS client to accessthe multimedia message. The present invention also provides a mechanismunder which an MMS client can search for multimedia messages of otherusers. The search domain can be restricted to a small set of users'multimedia messages, or can be extended to all users. The MMS client,who is the owner of the multimedia message, can at any time change theaccess mode and notify the concerned parties accordingly.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for sharing multimedia contents, by a server, the method comprising: receiving an establishment request for establishing one of a plurality of access modes for the multimedia contents from a first terminal; establishing an access mode according to the establishment request for the multimedia contents; receiving an access request for the multimedia contents stored in the server from at least one second terminal; determining whether the at least one second terminal is allowed to access the multimedia contents based on the access mode; and transmitting the multimedia contents, wherein the access mode includes at least one of a private mode for access by the first terminal, a restricted mode for access by the at least one second terminal, and a public mode for access by terminals which access the multimedia contents. 